I didn't know friendly eye contact gazing was unusual, I wonder whether my dog does it in a friendly way or an aggressive way. She seems to like me but maybe I've been intimidating her without realizing it.
If you look at her and she looks down and away, that's her interpreting your gaze as aggressive. If she maintains eye contact while displaying friendly behaviour ('laughing' mouth/panting, slow tail wags, etc), then she's fine with it. Most domesticated breeds have developed human-like behavioural signalling, and we like eye contact, so we select for puppies that respond well to it. Working dogs or dogs with a strong guard instinct may interpret it more aggressively, which is why it's advised to not look strange dogs directly in the face while approaching them.
ButtersA glass of some milksRegistered Userregular
So super shy Luna is shyyyyyyyy
I took a half day at home today so I could open her crate and let her wander around but she just sits there silent and scared as she was her first night.
I took a half day at home today so I could open her crate and let her wander around but she just sits there silent and scared as she was her first night.
Poor pup. Maybe get her a hug vest. It might loosen her up a bit so shes comfortable walking around
I have a podcast now. It's about video games and anime!Find it here.
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ButtersA glass of some milksRegistered Userregular
I've tried a trail of treats out of the crate but she wont touch them till I walk out of sight and then she just gobbles them up real quick and heads back into the crate.
I wonder if she's cold. Gonna try upping the thermostat a little tonight to see if she'll wander more
I know this isn't the Help/Advice forum, but it's a simple enough question.
Do any of you fellow cat-owners have recommendations on toys where a ball is trapped, whether in a box, or in a rail/tube like thing, so the cat can paw at the ball endlessly?
I'm specifically looking for toys where the ball is nigh impossible to pull out of the box/tube, though. We bought a box with 3 small bell-ball toys in it and one of the cats loves it to bits.
It only took her 5 minutes to pull up one of the balls out of the box and by morning, all three balls had been removed from the box and lost. We can throw other balls in there, but even ping pong balls are a little too big for the box to roll around inside, and only just a little too big that the cat would have to apply a little effort to pull the ping pong out of the opening in the box, but I'd still say it's too easy and they would be lost, too.
If one was to get a bird and a dog, would it be better to get the bird first and introduce the dog later? Dog first? Both at the same time? Just a bad idea all round and only get one or the other?
Main priority being that the dog doesn't hurt the bird.
Birb first, then puppy, supervise all interactions, hopefully bird teaches dog not to fuck with it
Personally I'd be nervous about it, but a lot of our dog's relatives live with chickens and are just trained from an early age that You Don't Fuck With The Chickens. They all seem to cohabit very well so I guess it works??
We had ducks and dogs, with a fence between. Initially we had muscovies and one discovered it could fly enough to get over the fence.. and one of the dogs discovered the duck. She was duly.. informed.. that the ducks are not to be snacked on. From that point she didn't bother the (new..) ducks.
The other dog saw that there were new additions to the household and added them to the Protect list. We didn't have problems with feral cats or foxes.
I didn't know friendly eye contact gazing was unusual, I wonder whether my dog does it in a friendly way or an aggressive way. She seems to like me but maybe I've been intimidating her without realizing it.
If you look at her and she looks down and away, that's her interpreting your gaze as aggressive. If she maintains eye contact while displaying friendly behaviour ('laughing' mouth/panting, slow tail wags, etc), then she's fine with it. Most domesticated breeds have developed human-like behavioural signalling, and we like eye contact, so we select for puppies that respond well to it. Working dogs or dogs with a strong guard instinct may interpret it more aggressively, which is why it's advised to not look strange dogs directly in the face while approaching them.
It was this mutual gazing that piqued the interest of Takefumi Kikusui, an animal behaviorist at Azabu University in Sagamihara, Japan. Kikusui’s lab studies oxytocin, a hormone that plays a role in maternal bonding, trust, and altruism. Other groups have shown that when a mother stares into her baby’s eyes, the baby’s oxytocin levels rise, which causes the infant to stare back into its mother’s eyes, which causes the mother to release more oxytocin, and so on. This positive feedback loop seems to create a strong emotional bond between mother and child during a time when the baby can’t express itself in other ways.
Kikusui—a dog owner for more than 15 years—wondered if the same held true for canines. “I love my dogs, and I always feel that they’re more of a partner than a pet,” he says. “So I started wondering, ‘Why are they so close to humans? Why are they connected so tightly to us?’ ”
Kikusui and his colleagues convinced 30 of their friends and neighbors to bring their pets into his lab. They also found and reached out to a few people who were raising wolves as pets. When each owner brought his or her animal into the lab, the researchers collected urine from both and then asked the owners to interact with their animal in a room together for 30 minutes. During this time, the owners typically petted their animals and talked to them. Dogs and their owners also gazed into each other’s eyes, some for a total of a couple of minutes, some for just a few seconds. (The wolves, not surprisingly, didn’t make much eye contact with their owners.) After the time was up, the team took urine samples again.
Mutual gazing had a profound effect on both the dogs and their owners. Of the duos that had spent the greatest amount of time looking into each other’s eyes, both male and female dogs experienced a 130% rise in oxytocin levels, and both male and female owners a 300% increase. (Kikusui was one of them, participating in the experiment himself with his two standard poodles, Anita and Jasmine.) The scientists saw no oxytocin increase in the dogs and owners who had spent little time gazing at each other, or in any of the wolf-owner duos.
Haechi stares at me all the damn time so I really need to believe we're just producing oxytocin and he loves me, rather than solely "he's a giant goddamn weirdo."
Lost Salient on
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
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Lost Salientblink twiceif you'd like me to mercy kill youRegistered Userregular
Related.
I lup my dumb boy, but monsoon season here means that he is Very Concerned 100% of the time. I'm genuinely considering buying a thundershirt even though he hates clothes.
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
The poodles would stare at me. Just lying outside the sliding glass doors staring. Watching, always watching, never looking away, eyes following you as you went about your business.
Then they'd sigh and flump back down into bed.
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3cl1ps3I will build a labyrinth to house the cheeseRegistered Userregular
Switch Friend Code: SW-3944-9431-0318
PSN / Xbox / NNID: Fodder185
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Raijin QuickfootI'm your Huckleberry YOU'RE NO DAISYRegistered User, ClubPAregular
Well
A tough decision has been made by me today.
I'm re-homing Kona.
Nobody in my house wants her around except for me and I'm never home because of work and when I am home I'm exhausted.
She is not getting the love and time she needs and it's killing me.
I found a couple who lost their newf earlier this year who are really excited about Kona and I'm pretty sure that's where she is going to go. Where she can be loved and cared for the way she deserves and in a way that I can't provide.
My heart is broken over this but I'm happy that she will help mend someone else's broken heart.
It's a good thing my work desk is in the corner facing away from people...
I'm glad you found some people who love her and a place where she will have a good life. Rest assured that if necessary I would absolutely offer to adopt her, and I'm sure other forum peeps would want to step in also.
Raijin QuickfootI'm your Huckleberry YOU'RE NO DAISYRegistered User, ClubPAregular
Yeah. I'm having a really hard time with it even though I know it's really for the best.
I'll be OK just... Maybe not today
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ButtersA glass of some milksRegistered Userregular
So Luna has gone from scare of our shadows and the shadows of trees in the back yard to hanging out with us on the couch and running around like a crazy person in the yard in just under 3 weeks! Things are going really well when we are around her but I am trying to figure out how to improve her life when we are not home. Right now we are forced to crating while we are at work because she is extremely destructive if left unsupervised. Last Friday we had the nerve to leave her crate unlocked while we went to the upstairs bedroom to shower and in that span of maybe 15 minutes she managed to plow through the chew stick we gave her and move on to the future missus' boots. She chewed right through side zipper ruining the pair and yesterday while crated obliterated a level 8 Tuff toy.
I'm not sure how to move forward. I want to give her more freedom but don't want to risk every shoe in the house and/or go through an $18 dog toy every day. Any tips on dealing with a heavy chewer would be greatly appreciated.
Gaston got fixed yesterday and now he's sulking with his head in a big cone.
He's very standoffish among strangers, and at the vet he refused to look at any of them and just stared at the door where he'd last seen us, crying, until we got back. He doesn't make any noise when we're out of the apartment or anything, but when we're away and he's away from home he has really bad separation anxiety, it seems.
The vet said his balls were huge. I'm just saying.
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3cl1ps3I will build a labyrinth to house the cheeseRegistered Userregular
Gaston got fixed yesterday and now he's sulking with his head in a big cone.
He's very standoffish among strangers, and at the vet he refused to look at any of them and just stared at the door where he'd last seen us, crying, until we got back. He doesn't make any noise when we're out of the apartment or anything, but when we're away and he's away from home he has really bad separation anxiety, it seems.
The vet said his balls were huge. I'm just saying.
Separation anxiety and what triggers it in dogs is really interesting and weird. Enzo used to just generally have it badly but around 4 or 5 he just got really chill with us coming and going. Reo is fine if you put him in his crate and then quickly leave, but if you leave at a time he doesn't expect (like the middle of the day instead of early in the morning for work) or he can hear you standing outside but not coming in he becomes deeply unhappy.
So Luna has gone from scare of our shadows and the shadows of trees in the back yard to hanging out with us on the couch and running around like a crazy person in the yard in just under 3 weeks! Things are going really well when we are around her but I am trying to figure out how to improve her life when we are not home. Right now we are forced to crating while we are at work because she is extremely destructive if left unsupervised. Last Friday we had the nerve to leave her crate unlocked while we went to the upstairs bedroom to shower and in that span of maybe 15 minutes she managed to plow through the chew stick we gave her and move on to the future missus' boots. She chewed right through side zipper ruining the pair and yesterday while crated obliterated a level 8 Tuff toy.
I'm not sure how to move forward. I want to give her more freedom but don't want to risk every shoe in the house and/or go through an $18 dog toy every day. Any tips on dealing with a heavy chewer would be greatly appreciated.
How old is she, first off? A lot of these behaviours taper off as they get older.
But honestly we had to just move everything chewable out of reach of both our dogs until they were at least 2. You can give them things to chew on and distract them, but if they're at a chew-y age and it's there and they're not supervised, then they'll probably eat it. Mabel once got through $300 worth of shoes in one day. Bones are a good distraction, but probably not something you want indoors.
Fortunately we have a yard, so it's not so much an issue during the day, but we lost quite a few TV remotes due to Uschi rising early and then figuring out how to open the hall door.
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If you look at her and she looks down and away, that's her interpreting your gaze as aggressive. If she maintains eye contact while displaying friendly behaviour ('laughing' mouth/panting, slow tail wags, etc), then she's fine with it. Most domesticated breeds have developed human-like behavioural signalling, and we like eye contact, so we select for puppies that respond well to it. Working dogs or dogs with a strong guard instinct may interpret it more aggressively, which is why it's advised to not look strange dogs directly in the face while approaching them.
I took a half day at home today so I could open her crate and let her wander around but she just sits there silent and scared as she was her first night.
Poor pup. Maybe get her a hug vest. It might loosen her up a bit so shes comfortable walking around
I wonder if she's cold. Gonna try upping the thermostat a little tonight to see if she'll wander more
Time to get a new crib. The cats have claimed this one.
It won't matter. Soon enough, the crib and child will both be theirs.
From what we've seen she seems to react more to stuff with a stationary camera.
PSN / Xbox / NNID: Fodder185
Do any of you fellow cat-owners have recommendations on toys where a ball is trapped, whether in a box, or in a rail/tube like thing, so the cat can paw at the ball endlessly?
I'm specifically looking for toys where the ball is nigh impossible to pull out of the box/tube, though. We bought a box with 3 small bell-ball toys in it and one of the cats loves it to bits.
It only took her 5 minutes to pull up one of the balls out of the box and by morning, all three balls had been removed from the box and lost. We can throw other balls in there, but even ping pong balls are a little too big for the box to roll around inside, and only just a little too big that the cat would have to apply a little effort to pull the ping pong out of the opening in the box, but I'd still say it's too easy and they would be lost, too.
Steam: TheArcadeBear
He is 1 year old and never wants to stop playing. Ever. At any point.
Our 10 year old dog is very stiff and tired.
Main priority being that the dog doesn't hurt the bird.
Personally I'd be nervous about it, but a lot of our dog's relatives live with chickens and are just trained from an early age that You Don't Fuck With The Chickens. They all seem to cohabit very well so I guess it works??
She is such a dope and we love her so much.
PSN / Xbox / NNID: Fodder185
The other dog saw that there were new additions to the household and added them to the Protect list. We didn't have problems with feral cats or foxes.
Eye contact aggression may not apply for dog-owner eye contact, however!
Haechi stares at me all the damn time so I really need to believe we're just producing oxytocin and he loves me, rather than solely "he's a giant goddamn weirdo."
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
I lup my dumb boy, but monsoon season here means that he is Very Concerned 100% of the time. I'm genuinely considering buying a thundershirt even though he hates clothes.
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
Then they'd sigh and flump back down into bed.
I couldn't resist.
The debut family album:
The rough and tough follow-up album:
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
Steam ID
Twitch Page
...it needs some rubbing.
PSN / Xbox / NNID: Fodder185
A tough decision has been made by me today.
I'm re-homing Kona.
Nobody in my house wants her around except for me and I'm never home because of work and when I am home I'm exhausted.
She is not getting the love and time she needs and it's killing me.
I found a couple who lost their newf earlier this year who are really excited about Kona and I'm pretty sure that's where she is going to go. Where she can be loved and cared for the way she deserves and in a way that I can't provide.
My heart is broken over this but I'm happy that she will help mend someone else's broken heart.
It's a good thing my work desk is in the corner facing away from people...
I'm glad you found some people who love her and a place where she will have a good life. Rest assured that if necessary I would absolutely offer to adopt her, and I'm sure other forum peeps would want to step in also.
I'm so sorry.
I'll be OK just... Maybe not today
I'm not sure how to move forward. I want to give her more freedom but don't want to risk every shoe in the house and/or go through an $18 dog toy every day. Any tips on dealing with a heavy chewer would be greatly appreciated.
He's very standoffish among strangers, and at the vet he refused to look at any of them and just stared at the door where he'd last seen us, crying, until we got back. He doesn't make any noise when we're out of the apartment or anything, but when we're away and he's away from home he has really bad separation anxiety, it seems.
The vet said his balls were huge. I'm just saying.
Separation anxiety and what triggers it in dogs is really interesting and weird. Enzo used to just generally have it badly but around 4 or 5 he just got really chill with us coming and going. Reo is fine if you put him in his crate and then quickly leave, but if you leave at a time he doesn't expect (like the middle of the day instead of early in the morning for work) or he can hear you standing outside but not coming in he becomes deeply unhappy.
First day of doggie day camp!
How old is she, first off? A lot of these behaviours taper off as they get older.
But honestly we had to just move everything chewable out of reach of both our dogs until they were at least 2. You can give them things to chew on and distract them, but if they're at a chew-y age and it's there and they're not supervised, then they'll probably eat it. Mabel once got through $300 worth of shoes in one day. Bones are a good distraction, but probably not something you want indoors.
Fortunately we have a yard, so it's not so much an issue during the day, but we lost quite a few TV remotes due to Uschi rising early and then figuring out how to open the hall door.
(only one of them actually swims)